Toowoomba Guzman Y Gomez drive-through restaurant launches in Wilsonton
Traffic controllers were required and cars queued out to the street as thousands of Toowoomba residents lined up for the launch of the new Guzman Y Gomez restaurant.
Business
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The launch of Toowoomba’s newest Guzman Y Gomez Mexican restaurant caused pandemonium in Wilsonton on Thursday, with thousands of residents lining up in their cars and on the footpath to grab a $5 burrito.
Traffic control was needed for opening day of franchisee Dante Reynaud’s latest Garden City location on Richmond Drive, which saw queues of vehicles stretching to the traffic lights at the intersection of Bridge St.
The massively-successful restaurant chain said it expected to sell more than 6000 burritos on its first day, with the company retaining its reputation for a “cult-like” following.
Mr Reynaud, who has worked with GYG for 13 years after coming from Mexico to Australia to study, said he had to bring in extra people from his other restaurants to meet the incredible demand.
“Working today, we’ve got about 120 on — we have around 70 people working at this location, we had so many applications,” he said.
“We have another 40 people from other stores (for today), (the new staff) have been training for one month before the opening.
“It’s been a really good response, we’re really happy with that.”
Along with the drive-through lanes, the new GYG is also the first Toowoomba location to offer breakfast from 7am.
“We’ve got breakfast for the first time, $5 for our big burritos today, and everything is fresh and healthy,” he said.
“This is the new model of the business, we started with strips in food courts, and now we’ve moved to drive-throughs.”
While it is unlikely to be this busy every day, the long lines of cars stretching into the street were among the concerns highlighted by neighbours when the restaurant was first proposed to council two years ago.
Councillors voted in favour of the proposal at a special meeting in October 2022.
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